The present invention relates generally to the realm of racing over a broad geographical area (relative to the resolution of Wireless Positioning Technology) such as cross country or marathon running, sailing races or regattas, biking, road rallies and the like. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for obtaining information in substantially real time from a race participant and generating and providing feedback associated with the obtained information.
There exists an unmet opportunity to provide the race participant with valuable feedback through the interpretation of data collected by for example wireless positioning technology and ancillary data that is readily available prior to and during the race. Such ancillary data might include information such as biometric data, local equipment data, the race route, positions of other participants of the race, etc. Other useful ancillary data might include historical performance of the participant or other participants potentially of notoriety who have raced the same course. Such data could be utilized either individually or in aggregate.
As is typical of racing enthusiasts, technology is being utilized in increasing innovative manners to monitor personal information and performance during a race and training. Typically however this has been limited to locally collected and communicated data such as heart rate, pedometer-derived pace and strides, and the local presentation of GPS data. The opportunity to capture and provide a more expansive and useful set of data and information based on the interpretation of this data will be appreciated by race participants.
Systems and methods as presently known in the art generally fail to provide feedback to the participant of the race or directly to observers of the race which may be used to determine the position of the user along a race route in substantially real time and remotely accessible. Where positions or locations are currently generated, these are generally obtained through triangulation of a number of devices or in relation to at least one fixed ground-based wireless network structure having a known geographic location. It would be desirable to obtain positioning information associated with a race participant and track the race participant with respect to a predetermined route, and optionally with respect to other actual or virtual participants.